Caring for COVID patients at home
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As the second wave of COVID-19 swept the country , NHS England and NHS Improvement launched their COVID Oximetry @ home and COVID Virtual Wards projects . Melanie Johnson , Programme Manager for our Patient Safety Collaborative , explains how the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN played a key role in supporting the adoption of these initiatives in our region to better protect ‘ at risk ’ patients .
Melanie Johnson , Programme Manager , Patient Safety Collaborative
One of the major challenges for the NHS during the pandemic was detecting early signs of deterioration in patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 . Known as ‘ silent hypoxia ’, oxygen levels in the blood can drop to dangerously low levels without the patient noticing , and that was extremely concerning for healthcare staff . Patients were arriving at hospital in a far worse condition than they realised and in some unfortunate cases it was too late to initiate effective treatment .
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